A small city tried to bulldoze 850 people for 'progress.' They said try me.
In the summer of 2004, the Mayor of Lewiston, Maine announced a plan to develop a four-lane boulevard across downtown's low-income neighborhood. This project was called "The Heritage Initiative." Contrary to its name, this plan was going to eliminate the downtown's heritage by displacing 850 people from their homes as well as destroy playgrounds, vegetable gardens, and historic buildings. Moving residents out of the city and improving traffic flow was at the heart of this proposal... It was 1960's Urban Renewal all over again. As tragic as the circumstances were, the threat of a road destroying the neighborhood required residents to rise to the challenge of becoming *community organizers. This movie documents 5 years of development and community organizing in Lewiston. It's an exceptional story about the people of Lewiston, but it's also a universal story about the challenges faced by many urban neighborhoods across the United States.
Direction
Five years of access yields genuine intimacy with organizers.
Editing
Turns zoning meetings into genuine suspense.
Production
DIY filmmaking mirrors its DIY activism subject.
Director
Craig Saddlemire
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Lewiston became a refugee resettlement hub for Somali immigrants in the early 2000s, making this displacement fight intersect with America's fraught immigration politics—though the film notably focuses on long-term residents.
Director Craig Saddlemire was a 22-year-old college student when he started filming; he lived in the threatened neighborhood and became an organizer himself, blurring the line between observer and participant.
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